What Kind of Security is Being Used?

An account number and PIN are required to access the system. 256-bit encryption scrambles your transmissions when crossing the Internet. After entering a PIN incorrectly three times, access to an account is blocked. You are responsible for protecting the secrecy of your PIN. We recommend you not store secured pages in your cache or leave your computer unattended while you are logged into Personal Branch.

VeriSign, the recognized leader in Internet security, allows you to see the security features of UCCU's Personal Branch, Internet Banking program before you use it. Click on the VeriSign seal to learn about the security of the Personal Branch, Internet Banking program.

VeriSign has issued to Utah Community Credit Union's Web site a unique ID, assuring members who use secure sections of the web site that communications are encrypted for privacy. Based on the same technology used to protect nuclear missile codes, VeriSign Secure Server IDs provide the strongest security available today.

What is Encryption?

Encryption takes meaningful text and numbers and scrambles them into numerical nonsense before transmitting them across the Internet. Your account information becomes "all mixed up and nonsense" when encryption is in place. For example, "pay $80 from checking to loan #1" could become something like 752144835628174317312".

The encryption process occurs for information going both directions - from your computer to the credit union and vice versa. Encryption uses complex algorithmic formulas to create a key that is used to translate the nonsense back to "pay $80 from checking to loan #1". There are billions of potential keys, and a different key is used for each Personal Branch session. Your computer and Utah Community's computer establish this key when they make your Personal Branch connection.

Because there are billions of potential keys, it would take a thief several lifetimes to come up with the exact key a specific transmission uses. Netscape estimates the basic level of encryption (40-bit or international) would take a 64-MIPS computer a year of dedicated processor time to break. Domestic, or 128-bit, encryption is exponentially more difficult to break. Personal Branch supports 256-bit encryption to give you peace of mind when conducting your financial business over the Internet.

Utah Community Credit Union, PO Box 1900, Provo, Utah 84603-1900, 1 (800) 453-8188. All Rights Reserved. Utah Community Federal Credit Union does business as (DBA) Utah Community Credit Union. Unauthorized account access or use is not permitted and may constitute a crime punishable by law.